Page 43 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

Lewis pulled up short before they could make contact, brows drawing together under the bill of his hat. “What the fuck?”

“Back up,” Carter said, low and firm, and Aidan was struck, as he still was occasionally, by the knowledge that Ava’s little high school friend had grown up, and grown a backbone, and wasn’t so little anymore. Even if he didn’t like what Aidan was doing, he was still willing to throw himself between his VP and a potential threat.

It was damn near heartwarming.

“It’s cool,” Aidan said. “Let him by.”

Carter cast a doubtful glance over his shoulder, but sidestepped a few paces. His hand stayed on his gun.

Lewis had been startled, though, and didn’t rush at the front of Aidan’s bike. Hung back instead, hands curling and uncurling. Some of the blind fury had bled out of his face, andnow he looked more hurt than anything, when he met Aidan’s gaze.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” he said, “but if you’re sitting here, fucking – fucking watching, like it’s a sport or some shit, then this was you, wasn’t it?” He flung his arm back toward the farm, crawling with feds.

“It was,” Aidan said – and then held out a hand when Lewis sucked in a breath to respond. “Wait, wait, just, hear me out for a minute.”

“Fuck you,” Lewis spat. “You told me to leave you alone, and I did, alright? I didn’t fuck with you, or your club, so why would you–”

“Shut up and listen to me for a minute,” Aidan said, and whatever he managed to do with his voice, it worked: Lewis shut up. “You’re right. They’re here because of me.” He lifted his spread hand a fraction higher, and Lewis bit back what was doubtless a furious tirade. “But you and your folks aren’t going to get in trouble with the FBI – unless y’all have human bodies buried on the property?”

Lewis’s brows lifted, disappearing beneath his hat brim, and shook his head. “No.” The scowl returned. “What the fuck?”

“Just checking. You’re good, then. They won’t find anything, and it’ll be ‘so sorry’ from Daddy Government.”

“Yeah, after they dig up our pastures!”

“I’ll pay for that.”

“You will?” Roman asked.

“The club will foot the bill for any repairs, as a gesture of thanks and goodwill. We’re also considering making an investment in your farm.”

“We are?” This time Roman and Carter asked it together, in perfect, skeptical unison.

“What?” Lewis asked, and, slowly, his expression was giving way to disbelief tinged with hope.

“I’ve had a change of heart, Lewis. Go back down there, and tell your parents to hang tight, and tell the feds they have no idea what they’re talking about. Let ‘em search the place – flush anything illegal if you have it. And, here.” He had a scrap of paper with his cellphone number written on it already, and he passed it over. “When they’re gone, tell your old man to call me. As far as you go, you still want to prospect? I’m looking for someone to sponsor in my new tenure as vice president.”

Lewis gaped at him. Slowly, he took the paper.

“You still interested?” Aidan asked.

“Yeah – yes. Yes, sir. I’ll…yeah.” He stuffed the paper scrap in his shirt pocket and blinked at Aidan, shocked.

“Go on.” Aidan waved. “Handle that shit, and then we’ll talk.”

“Right. Okay.” He stood another moment, then whirled, and jogged across the street without checking for traffic.

Thirteen

Deborah Sawyer spoke for a very long time, the red second hand of the cheap clock on the wall counting off the minutes. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty,thirty. She had to pause on more than one occasion to collect herself and daintily blow her nose in one of the tissues from the box that Ghost handed her. When she was finished, he dropped the whole box in the trash, tied off the bag, and slung it over his shoulder to take with them. Mike had already agreed to come in behind them with a rag and a bottle of Lysol and get rid of prints and DNA, but, given the way things were going, the wildly improbable turns it had all taken, Ghost wondered if they’d need a DNA sample of their own at some point, even if just to cause a little misdirection.

Though she qualified it with plenty of lies and pleas of innocence, the gist of her involvement with Abacus was this: the fourth child of an old money family, her siblings had all worked their way up to the executive boards of various corporations; her oldest brother was a congressman. She’d aimed for the FBI, always intended to become a director, to oversee the dispensation of justice from a bright corner office. But she had to start at the bottom, with the “riff-raff,” as she put it, and it turned out she had a sensitive stomach, and lacked the attention to detail needed in her chosen profession. Her father made some phone calls; an old friend of his opened doors for her…in exchange for her cooperation in some sensitive personal and professional matters. As the head of Forensics, she would disappear evidence when he asked, and in turn, she would have her lauded career, as well as invites to all the most exclusive social gatherings on the east coast.

She claimed never to have willingly participated in any of the sex-trafficking, but her husband, it turned out, had been fraternity brothers with Jack Waverly, so Ghost doubted that was true.

The laptop proved a treasure trove.

“Do you have anything else at home?” Fox wanted to know. “The only way this works – the only way we can protect you – is if you give useverything.”

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